Society for the great pains and trouble he had taken, but that the circumstances of the Society rendered it at that time unadvisable to adopt the plan.

That

Thus," says the Bishop, "was a final period put at once to a most interesting and important subject, and the spiritual condition of near half a million of Negro Slaves decided in four hours. the particular plan offered to the Society might stand in need of improvement, and that a better might have been substituted in its room, is very probable. I would have given my hearty vote for any wiser plan in preference to my own. was not the mode, it was the measure I had at heart. But that the discussion of this subject should have been entirely finished at one meeting, which every one expected would have taken up two or three; that no other plan should be

It

adopted

adopted or proposed, nor any one effectual measure taken for the conversion and salvation of near 300 Slaves, who were the immediate property of a religious Society, did, I own, a little surprise me. The Society had undoubtedly an opportunity of rendering their name illustrious in every part of the world, by beginning on their own plantation the civilization and conversion of the Negroes, and thereby at once shewing the possibility of it, and the method of doing it, and setting an example, which might excite the attention, and by degrees the imitation of all the West-India proprietors. If this example be not set; if this attempt be not made by a Society, whose professed purpose is to propagate the Gospel in Foreign Parts' among Infidels and Heathens; by whom is there the least probability that it can or will be undertaken?

undertaken? It is not small difficulties, it is not great difficulties, that should have deterred us from an undertaking, in which our credit, our reputation, our interest and the interests of religion, are so essentially concerned. Nothing less than an absolute demonstrable impossibility should have discouraged us from the attempt. This was the opinion of Bishop Gibson half a century ago, as expressed in the admirable Letters, which he wrote upon this subject; and it is, I will venture to say, the opinion of every unprejudiced man in this kingdom, who has considered the subject with sufficient attention and sufficient sensibility."

From this passage, it appears evidently that the Bishop was both disappointed and hurt by such a hasty rejection, on the part of the Society, of a plan on which he had bestowed considerable care

and

and thought, and which it was admitted came within the letter and spirit of their charter. But though he failed in this endeavour, he was not discouraged, as the following pages will shew, from pursuing steadily his favourite object, the civilization and conversion of the Negro Slaves in our West-India colonies.

In the mean time, his attention to the duties of his diocese was constant and unwearied. Amongst other things, he took infinite pains to establish an annual subscription for the relief of his poorer clergy. Such an institution, more particularly in the Archdeaconry of Richmond, was greatly wanted; and by urging the subject in the course of conversation, and circulating besides a printed letter, in which he very strongly pressed the necessity of the measure, he at last succeeded.

His efforts were also directed with the

same active zeal to the establishment of Sunday Schools. Of this admirable plan, first suggested by Mr. Robert Raikes, of Gloucester, for diffusing amongst the poor the principles of religious knowledge, at an age when they are most capable of receiving them, and in a manner which in no respect interferes with their ordinary occupations, he had early conceived a very favourable opinion, and in several instances privately encouraged it. But, as an act of prudence, he determined not to give it the sanction of his public approbation, till, as he observes, "time and experience, and more accurate inquiry, had enabled him to form a more decided judgment of its real value, and its probable effects." When, however, repeated information from various quarters, and particularly

.

from